Accordingly, he sold the premises and good-will, with all the stock of
potatoes and wheat, to the foreman, old Soapsuds, at something below what
they were really worth, rather than make any row in the way of advertising;
and the name of 'Soapsuds, Brothers & Co.' reigns on the
blue-and-whitey-brown parcel-ends, where formerly that of Puffington stood
supreme.
It is a melancholy fact, which those best acquainted with London society
can vouch for, that her 'swells' are a very ephemeral race. Take the last
five-and-twenty years--say from the days of the Golden Ball and Pea-green
Hayne down to those of Molly C----l and Mr. D-l-f-ld--and see what a
succession of joyous--no, not joyous, but rattling, careless, dashing,
sixty-percenting youths we have had.
And where are they all now? Some dead, some at Boulogne-sur-Mer, some in
Denman Lodge, some perhaps undergoing the polite attentions of Mr.
Commissioner Phillips, or figuring in Mr. Hemp's periodical publication of
gentlemen 'who are wanted.'
In speaking of 'swells,' of course we are not alluding to men with
reference to their clothes alone, but to men whose dashing, and perhaps
eccentric, exteriors are but indicative of their general system of
extravagance.
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